Cincinnati's assistant city manager came strong to the mic at City Hall on Tuesday, telling Council's streetcar committee it's time to take a hard look at changing the failing rail line's leadership and considering cutting operating hours.

Question now is: Does anyone on Council have the guts to follow through and make this happen? More specifically, will any of Council's pro-streetcar members take the lead?

It became even more clear on Tuesday that the time for having more discussions, hiring more consultants, conducting more studies and passing more blame is over.

Here's a breakdown of the three key problems Juech laid out:

Leadership

• What Juech said: “I don’t know if things are going to truly get better under this management structure. The problem that we have now is there’s not one single ... person who is both in charge and empowered to make the decisions to improve this thing. (former Cincinnati Bell CEO) Ted Torbeck said, 'You need one neck to choke.' If things are going wrong, you need to know who’s responsible and how to get it fixed. Right now we don’t have that."

• Context: Bear with us here as we rehash how this bureaucratic cake is layered. The city owns the streetcar. The city contracts SORTA to oversee operations. SORTA in turn contracts with private firm Transdev to manage daily operations and repairs. SORTA has a director for the streetcar. Transdev has a director for the streetcar. Juech essentially oversees things from City Hall. Get all that?

• Analysis: Politics Extra hates to say we told you so, but yeah, we told you so. Three months ago, PX suggested that SORTA get out of the streetcar business and let the city run it. What's wrong with the city directly contracting with Transdev? It seems SORTA is an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. Yes, we understand it's not that easy to make this happen. Contracts are involved, but in the end this will be better for everyone. The city can shoulder full responsibility and SORTA can go back to focusing solely on fixing the Metro bus system.

Budget/hours

• What Juech said: “There will be some tough decisions to make on that."

• Context: He was talking about a forthcoming budget shortfall, due mostly to declining fare and advertising revenue. Juech did not disclose what the gap might be, but he suggested Council start addressing the problem next month. In so many words, he suggested cutting hours as a way to get the budget in order. He said it's "overdue" to take a close look at the hours.

• Analysis: Yet another suggestion PX made months ago – cut hours. The streetcar does well on the weekends, when suburbanites flood into Downtown and Over-the-Rhine for Reds games, plays, dinner and drinks. But during weekdays, those streetcars are rolling ghost towns.

Adjust the hours and frequency so there's more service when people have shown they actually want it most. There are times when service is popular & times when it's not; let's maximize the former. https://t.co/OMwvcs86xs

Streetcar manufacturer

• What Juech said: “Compressors are a problem. Streetcars don't work in extreme cold and extreme heat. This is what the city considers a fleet defect. The fixes have not really borne fruit. ... City manager Harry Black met with CAF executives last week. He explained that failure to address these in utmost urgency would result in serious consequences."

• Context: Manufacturer CAF USA delivered five lemons to Cincinnati, but the company is giving the city the runaround on who's responsible for paying for the fixes. The city contends CAF is responsible under the original contract, which called for the company to build five operational streetcars for around $2 million each. The city has withheld $4 million in payments to CAF until everything is fixed for good. CAF says it'll take six months to fully fix each vehicle, Juech said.

• Analysis: Why isn't City Council demanding CAF executives come to a public meeting and answer questions? They've had SORTA and Transdev officials in to answer questions. CAF officials have refused to return messages from Enquirer reporters. It might be time the city to take CAF to court on behalf of Cincinnati taxpayers.